Sub genres in the arts are transitory by nature, given that they rise to prominence and eventually fade away based on whatever trends happen to be popular at the time. It's the reason why young adult novels today are about teens in post-apocalyptic dystopias instead of high school babysitter's clubs, and why there are no new Nu Metal bands touring the country. Nowhere else is the constantly shifting nature of popular trends more readily apparent then the horror genre, which cycles through sub genres faster then a crazed maniac cuts through flesh. Slasher films, PG-13 Japanese remakes, torture porn, and supernatural stories are just a few of the most recent and prevalent trends in the genre in the last 30 years, and since horror films are traditionally cheap to produce, the Hollywood production machine can use them to chase the latest trend easier and faster then other genres. Since 2007, found footage horror has been one of the most popular trends given its emphasis on spooky implication and inference over big budget special effects and gore gags. However, over the past couple of years the sub genre has shown signs of age, most evident in the way that filmmakers have experimented with the limitations of the form, combining it with other sub genres and even deconstructing it. Earlier this year, director Adam Wingard and writer Simon Barrett announced a new film entitled The Woods, leaving many to speculate as to what this movie was about, given that there was no other information available and no knowledge of it before it was announced. At a San Diego Comic Con screening of the film, it was revealed that the movie's real title was Blair Witch, and it came as a huge surprise. Once the shock had worn off, though, it seemed all too appropriate for a sequel to TheBlair Witch Project, the film that birthed found footage horror way back in 1999, to emerge from the darkness this year. For Wingard and Barrett's Blair Witch is a homecoming for found footage horror, bringing the sub genre full circle with a summation of all that it can do.

Blair Witch is a horror sequel in the classic mold, following the original film's structure and providing new concepts within that rather then blazing its own path (as opposed to the bold yet compromised Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2). James (James Allen McCune) is the younger brother of the first film's Heather, obsessed with finding evidence that his sister may still be alive somewhere in the Black Hills woods of Maryland. When he acquires a video found near the woods that he believes points the way to finding his sister, his friends Peter (Brandon Scott) and Ashley (Corbin Reid) along with documentarian Lisa (Callie Hernandez) trek off to Burkittsville. There, they meet up with Blair witch conspiracy theorists Lane (Wes Robinson) and Talia (Valorie Curry) and head off to camp in the deep woods. From then on, the film plays like a Greatest Hits of The Blair Witch Project: creepy stick figures, rock piles, horrifying noises, geographical confusion, mysterious disappearances, a scary dilapidated house, the end.

They're gonna break that rule.

By far the weakest aspect of Blair Witch is that it apes the original closely without being able to recapture Project's pervasive sense of frustration and dread. Granted, for a lot of people The Blair Witch Project's power came from the fact that its marketing campaign successfully convinced them that it might be real, but that's discounting just how well the original film creates a verisimilitude all its own. Anyone who loves camping, hates camping, or has simply gotten lost in the woods before can watch The Blair WitchProject and become anxious along with the characters at their plight, long before any supposed supernatural happenings occur. Blair Witch, however, doesn't linger on building characters or a mood, but rather barrels ahead to the next gag or occurrence. This means that the film is never boring, as the camaraderie of the cast and Editor Louis Cioffi's cutting keeps the pace up, but it robs the film of any depth it might have had. Right from the get go, it's unclear why James is so obsessed with finding his sister (and why his friends are so game to follow him) when he was barely old enough when she disappeared to remember her, and especially when the mysterious video he sees that inspires him to try to find her is so troubling it should give most people pause. When the characters of The Blair Witch Project went into the woods, we knew who they were in relation to each other, how they felt about each other, and what seeds were planted as to how things might turn sour between them. The most memorable relationship in BlairWitch is between Peter and Lane, and it's a completely antagonistic one that we get to see develop on screen. Any other interpersonal relationships between the characters are mostly off screen, which may hew closely to realism (as many private moments are not likely to be captured on video) but given the fact that Lisa is meant to be shooting a documentary on James at first and not on spooky goings on in the woods, it's a missed opportunity.

Ironically these shortcomings go hand in hand with the film's biggest strengths, that being that Wingard and Barrett have constructed an immersive haunted house-esque experience that is utterly nightmarish and relentless and always visually compelling. This is a quality the two developed on their previous found footage work for the V/H/S films, being able to manipulate an audience and give them just enough payoff to every scare and gag to have the fear linger in the mind. One of their best innovations is what I'd consider to be the main reason a Blair Witch sequel would be of interest in this day & age, that being the inclusion of up to date technology used by the campers. Similar to other great horror sequels like Aliens and [REC] 2, our characters venture into the woods armed not with weapons but the latest in communication and navigation tech, up to and including a drone controlled by smartphone app. It's not only a great escalation of the hubris from the first film (in which Heather memorably chanted that they would find their way out of the forest if they just kept walking because "this is America!") but it allows Wingard to create some excellent visuals. Cutting between last gen digital video, current gen HD and Bluetooth style personal cameras, the film's visual style becomes more deliberate and assured as it goes on, while still keeping things "shaky cam" enough to not break the illusion. I never expected to see some fantastic compositions in a found footage movie, and Blair Witch provides that.

CAMPING IS SO FUN YOU GUYS

The movie's final act is a marvel, opening up the mythology of the series and providing payoffs to set ups you may not have even realized were there. For the most part the film was shot in a real forest in Vancouver, but this final act takes place in a house designed by Production Designer Thomas S. Hammock, and his work adds to the experience admirably. Flashes of light shine brightly through slots between planks of old, rotten wood as the rain outside seeps through the roof, the light illuminating the eerie writings etched on the walls. It both recreates and expands the house from the end of The BlairWitch Project, and provides the film with its best visual palette. It energizes Wingard's technique as well, resulting in a bravura sequence in which Callie Hernandez's Lisa is trapped in a tunnel, the camera cutting between her POV and a handheld camera pushed several feet in front of her. It's during this act that Lisa becomes a character in the mold of Wingard & Barrett's prior heroines (particularly Sharni Vinson in You're Next and Maika Monroe in The Guest) and it's fantastic to watch.

Blair Witch may start slow, but by the end reinvigorates not just the series but found footage horror itself. Barrett clearly loves the first film and its mythology enough to keep its continuity intact here, both paying homage to the lore as well as expanding it and adding compelling new wrinkles. Wingard (along with Director of Photography Robby Baumgartner) backs him up with the visuals, even working in a sly nod to the most iconic shot of the first film. While the characters themselves might be thin, the cast is a blast to watch, and their chemistry with each other is very well presented. They also freak out incredibly well, naturally. If you’re not normally a fan of found footage horror movies or not a fan of the original Blair Witch, stay away, as there’s nothing here that will convince you to come around. If you’re a fan of either or both, however, you can’t do any better than this filmmaking team. Found footage horror may be on its way out, destined to be a goofy meta parody (Found Footage 3D is just such a film due for release soon) before heading out to pasture, but it's fantastic that the Blair Witch came back at least once more to show the sub genre she created who's boss.

The portrayal of violence in art, and its influence (or lack thereof) on acts of violence committed in real life is a debate that has raged since the beginning of culture, and one that will likely continue until the heat death of the universe. "Life imitates art" and "art imitates life" are axioms that are argued for and against so passionately and logically because each carries equal weight. It's as plausible to believe that consuming violence in entertainment gives a person violent ideas as it is to believe that a person prone to violence would be that way with or without inspiration. The only true, definitive answer to the debate is that there is no true, definitive answer. That doesn't stop artists from exploiting that tension, nor does it prevent people from taking sides and criticizing where they deem appropriate. The horror genre can be seen as a cultural ground zero for that debate, with many filmmakers taken to task for their exploitation of violence, and many fans berated for their enjoyment of such entertainment. As a result, the debate whether horror films help or hurt humanity is addressed in many horror movies themselves, showing up as a subtextual theme here or sly joke there. Sometimes (though very rarely) the indictment of a horror audience is the literal text of a film, such as in both versions of Michael Hankeke's Funny Games. There is only one instance, however, of a horror film that is all at once an exploration of the genre's effect on culture, a condemnation of its audience, and a much anticipated sequel to one of the biggest horror movies of all time. That film is Joe Berlinger's arrogant, haphazard, fascinatingly miscalculated and unintentionally hilarious Book Of Shadows: Blair Witch 2.

Most sequels, especially horror sequels, follow a "same, but different" template, putting a slight spin on a rehashed version of the original film. Blair Witch 2 (which I will call the movie from now on given the fact that there is no reference or mention to a "Book of Shadows" at any point in the film) is undoubtedly one of the most unique sequels ever made, in that it takes place in "our" world, where The Blair Witch Project was just a fictional movie. It took the Nightmare On Elm Street series seven films to get to a meta take on the material, and Blair Witch did it in two. In Blair Witch 2, Jeff (Jeffery Donovan, pre-Burn Notice) is a huge mega fan of The Blair Witch Project who makes a living making and selling worthless tchotchkes from the surrounding woods where the first movie was made, and decides to graduate to running his own guided tour of filming locations for other fans and tourists. On his inaugural (or "virginal", as the characters joke) tour, he is joined by the Wiccan Erica (Erica Leerhsen) who's looking to promote "real" witchcraft and communicate with the Blair witch, couple Stephen (Stephen Barker Turner) and Tristen (Tristine Skyler) who are writing a book looking to either confirm or debunk the Blair witch, and goth gal Kim (Kim Director) who comes along because she "thought the movie was cool". In an awkwardly extended first act, the tour group visit and spend the night at the ruins where "Rustin Parr", the Blair witch-influenced child murderer mentioned in the first film, used to live. After being accosted by a rival tour group and subsequently enjoying a night of debauchery, the group awaken with no memory of the night before and a handful of videotapes from their cameras (literal "found footage", in a clever touch) as the only evidence of what went on. After an oddly brief trip to the local hospital, the group and the film end up in Jeff's house/headquarters/bachelor pad built in an old disused mill, where they all begin to hallucinate and become paranoid that something awful happened the night before.

It takes a while for the movie to finally settle into its concept (which is basically TheHangover but with witchcraft and murder), likely due to the fact that it is a haphazard mess, structurally and otherwise. Some of these issues can certainly be laid at the feet of the studio (the now defunct Artisan Entertainment, along with producers Haxan Films), who demanded Berlinger reshoot and reorder large portions of the film. As a result, the narrative jumps all over the place, from flash forwards to flashbacks to hallucinations to dream sequences. At first this technique manages to be effective at creating an atmosphere of confusion and paranoia, giving the audience a similar experience to the characters’. However, unlike Christopher Nolan's meticulously constructed Memento, which was released the same year as Blair Witch 2 and manipulated its audience to put them in the main character’s state of mind, the obfuscation in Blair Witch 2 begins to feel too out of control before long, ending up more annoyingly baffling then eerily unsettling.

That confusion extends to the film's setting, which at first appears to be a clever meta twist on the material by setting it in the "real" world (like the fantastic Wes Craven's NewNightmare had done years before) but confuses the issue by making the mythology of The Blair Witch Project apparently "real" as well. For instance, the tour group alternates between quoting Heather Donahue from the first film and then speak about Rustin Parr as if he were a real person. The actors in the original Blair Witch used their real names as the character’s names, given all the improvisation they did on camera (and helping the realistic nature of the movie and its ad campaign). The characters in Blair Witch 2 share all the same first names as the actor’s real names, but the character’s surnames have all been changed. It’s completely baffling as to why they bothered to do this at all, since it’s rather weak as a reference to the naming convention from the first film, and isn’t necessary for the film’s conceit (an onscreen legend at the beginning of the movie explains that the film is based on real events but is itself a “reenactment” of them). Rather then do what New Nightmare did and make a strong delineation between the fictional world and the “real” world, Blair Witch 2 fudges it, toying with the concept but not committing either way.

Ultimately the film is compromised due to the massive disagreements between Berlinger and Artisan/Haxan. The studio and producers wished for a straightforward horror sequel, whereas Berlinger (a documentary filmmaker prior to Blair Witch 2 and one ever since) wanted to make a film commenting on the effects of horror film fandom & mass hysteria, while condemning fans of the original Blair Witch. Berlinger thought the marketing tactic of claiming that the original film really happened was irresponsible, and Blair Witch 2 is (or attempts to be) a horror tale in the vain of "you reap what you sew" whereby fans of the original either meet deadly fates or (possibly) commit horrible deeds. While the veracity of Berlinger's thesis is debatable, his original cut would have undoubtedly been more consistent, for in actuality the film is a muddled message, positing that the Blair witch (or something comparable) may actually exist and has either possessed or manipulated these kids. This brings the movie more in line with the original, but where in that film the supernatural occurrences were largely implied, here they're mostly shown to us, which is of course visually interesting yet ruins the ambiguity that this version attempts to present.

Erica Leerhsen attempts to give Kim Director some skin care tips.

So is there any value to Blair Witch 2 beyond being a bizarre curiosity in horror film history? Depending on your tastes, I believe there is. For anyone who is looking for a compelling story with consistency, this is not your movie. However, for those who appreciate troubled films that vary wildly in tone, you just might have a blast with it. A large portion of the film's fun comes from Lanny Flaherty, who plays the Burkittsville sheriff as if it's his life's mission to chew every last bit of scenery to bits. At one point he intimidates Jeff by calling him, telling him to turn on a live news broadcast, and then waving to the camera while still on the phone. Other scenes have him interrogate the remaining tour group kids while sounding like he’s always a few moments away from hocking a loogie into a spittoon. While Flaherty is clearly having fun, the other actors seemingly believe themselves to be in a hip Dimension Films production, running around alternating being witty and screaming while Marilyn Manson blasts on the soundtrack. The practical effects and makeup are well done, and the studio-mandated gore and nudity gives the film a lot more visual variety then its predecessor certainly had. It all ends up feeling like a film co-directed by a drunk Wes Craven and a half-awake Michael Haneke, written by Kevin Williamson with a head injury. What started life as a refutation of the first film's marketing gimmick and examination of the horror genre itself unfortunately ended up as an example for executives of why original sequel ideas should be regarded as suspect. Book Of Shadows (again, what book??): Blair Witch 2 is a sequel that stands alone in nearly every way, but for all the wrong reasons.